Protection
by Erendhyl
Summary: She’d just lost. Again. Of course, both people have to think of it as an actual fight for you to lose. To Hyuuga Neji, it had merely been a warm up. slight NejiTen


Protection

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Be thankful I don't, or the series would get a really cheesy ending.**

She'd just been defeated. Again. Tenten stood up, wincing at the pain from the movement as she looked at her opponent and, for what felt like the thousandth time, conqueror. Of course, both people have to think of it as an actual fight for you to lose. To Hyuuga Neji, it had merely been a warm up.

She clenched her teeth at the thought. _Warm up._ Neji had never seen her as a proper opponent. She was always just the _warm up._ Even Rock Lee, their idiotic youth-obsessed teammate, was an actual opponent. She was a _warm up._

"Alright Neji! Way to use your Power of Youth!" their sensei, Gai, cried enthusiastically. Normally, his obsession with the Power of Youth annoyed Tenten. Right now, she would enjoy educating him on what the Power of Youth could mean when it came in the form of a really pissed off kunoichi. Of course, he was a Jounin and she a mere Genin, so she would probably lose to him even faster than she had lost to Neji. At least Lee wasn't adding to Gai's cheering. Lee may not hold grudges, but that didn't mean he _liked _the way that Neji treated him. Of course, the Hyuuga_ had _changed since his Chuunin Exam fight against Uzumaki Naruto, but that change of heart still didn't stop him from being Hyuuga Neji, the prodigy of the Hyuuga clan with an ego to match.

Tenten simmered throughout Lee's billionth attempt to defeat Neji, even forgetting to add her support to the idea that her thick-browed teammate could never defeat true genius, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Neji. He may act aloof, but that didn't make the ninja genius blind to humanity. He wasn't Uchiha! When Gai ended the training after the bout, Tenten angrily picked up her weapons scrolls and began solo target practice. She was so focused on her training and her own bad mood that she didn't sense the chakra of the other person present until they spoke.

"Tenten." It was only her ninja training at hiding her emotions that kept Tenten from jumping like a startled rabbit. Why was _Neji _still here?

"Hello Neji, she replied, trying to keep the rage she still felt out of her voice. It still came across as cold, and when her teammate stepped into view he looked concerned (well, as concerned as Neji can look).

"Is anything wrong, Tenten?" Okay, Neji may not be as dense as Uchiha, but he was still dense. _Of course_ something was wrong, hence her attacking the stump she was practicing on like it had done her a great personal wrong. But she didn't say that. Instead she struggled to keep any anger from creeping into her voice as she replied.

"No, nothing is wrong; I'm just practicing with my weapons so that next Chuunin Exam I'm not taken out in the preliminaries." She punctuated her statement with three perfect bull's-eyes in her target. Neji didn't look convinced, particularly since the third kunai sliced clean through the other two. His expression said as much, and that he wouldn't leave without an honest answer.

"I'm training to beat someone," she said vaguely. Maybe he'd be content with just that, after all, it should ring true.

"Who?" Damn him.

"Lee," she replied quickly. Too quickly. Neji didn't look amused by her vain attempt at a lie. "You," Tenten sighed in defeat. Neji's look was questioning. It irked her that he should need any further explanation; he was supposed to be a genius after all! "Do you really think I'm content with always being your warm up?! I'm a ninja too Neji, and I wish you would treat me like one instead of as _practice._ You treat _Lee_ with more respect than you treat me!" By the time she finished, she was panting with the anger she'd finally given voice to. Neji could be Hokage for all she cared, but Tenten was no one's warm up!

Neji had an obnoxiously cool expression on his face the entire time. He could at least _pretend_ to stop being so arrogant for once in his life.

"You're the same as Lee." Tenten winced at the comparison, made all the worse by her hypocrisy. "Did both of you really never realize that I was _trying to protect you_?!"

"Trying to… _protect _me?" she parroted. She couldn't help it. This was just too weird. Of all the crazy excuses she'd come up with (female inferiority, Neji's own natural arrogance, Neji simply failing to notice) this had never been one of them! "How?!" she cried. Neji looked at her solemnly, not that that wasn't his usual face. Seriously, did he even have another facial expression?

"Tenten, you're not the strongest. I'm not the strongest. Against someone like Naruto or Gaara, or even Gai-sensei, I'd be helpless to protect you."

"What makes you think that you'd even _need_ to protect me?!" Tenten protested furiously. It irked her that Neji just assumed that in a serious fight he would have to protect her, as though she weren't a ninja at all. Neji's calm was unfazed by her outburst. He smirked instead of the stoic expression he'd maintained thus far, silently reminding her of the Chuunin Exams. She'd lost her preliminary match, without landing even one hit on her opponent. All because her weapons could be blocked effortlessly by Temari's stupid Fuuton ninjutsu.

"Exactly," Neji said. "What if you met someone else who could use the Wind Element? Or even someone like Lee or Sasuke, who could move fast enough to dodge even your attacks? I'm doing this to show you that you _can't_ beat everyone, so that you don't challenge someone out of your league, and get yourself killed." The speech would have been harsh, if Tenten hadn't seen real fear in Neji's pale eyes. He really believed that she and Lee would be killed. But still…

"Neji, why couldn't you have just said that?" she asked. The look he sent her had an obvious meaning. 'Because I am Hyuuga Neji and I have no skill with people or talking about my feelings, so I beat the crap out of others to show that I care.' Really, Neji could be an idiot sometimes; for all that he was a genius. She giggled.

"Would you like to train with me then, Tenten?" he asked. She nodded enthusiastically. Train. Not 'be my warm up.' _Train._

**A/N: This was my first attempt at writing for a couple other than SasukeXSakura, please tell me what you think of it!**


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